art
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You. Gotta. See. This.
The Electric State is the knock-it-out-of-the-park alt-history sci-fi movie of the year. This movie is disturbingly gorgeous. Stephen F. Windon’s cinematography dazzles the eye with bizarre yet mudane mechanical junk; Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt are pitch perfect in the leads. Brown makes the big character jump from the gawky Number 11 of Stranger Read more
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Oh, Xmas Tree, Oh Xmas Tree
Many folks spend hours and a pile of cash to get the “perfect” Xmas tree. Not me. Some 20 years ago, the Mrs developed a liking for those fancy glass Xmas ornaments, so we promptly hit the after-Holiday sales and started a collection. Came the next Xmas, and we weren’t happy with how the ornaments Read more
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Larry the Barbarian
Over at Monster Hunter Nation, Larry Correia puts us hip to a delightful and creative approach to F&SF book covers: incorporating the author as a cover character. This one of L.C. and wife rocks it: If you’re not tuned into Larry’s worldview, you can get the 2-minute summary by clicking to the adjacent blog entry Read more
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The Fate of the “Fountain”
Richard Bledsoe isn’t impressed with Conceptual Art A certain segment of the glitterati like to flaunt their ability to see shit as sophisticated art as a badge of honor, for some reason. and tells a delightful story about its early critics (“It broke!”). I have to agree, and now I’m off to learn more about Read more
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Bob Dylan and the Nobel Prize
Everybody’s got an opinion on this one, and here’s a doozy: The Nobel Prize is in fact the ultimate example of bad faith: A small group of Swedish critics pretend to be the voice of God, and the public pretends that the Nobel winner is Literature incarnate. … Mr. Dylan may yet accept the prize, Read more
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Glamour from the 20th Century
Recently finished Virginia Postrel’s The Power of Glamour, and finally understood what all the fuss has been about. Although people often equate them, glamour is not the same as beauty, sylishness, luxury, celebrity, or sex appeal….Glamour is, rather, a form of nonverbal rhetoric, which moves and persuades not through words but through images, concepts, and Read more
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Art Meets Science
On a day that I’m overbooked, running around campus doing minor, but essential chores, and feeling a bit grumpy about the whole academic enterprise, I stumble upon a jewel like this: Not in a gallery or the administration building, but in a hallway between classrooms. Where thousands of students, and the odd faculty member, can Read more
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Rudolf Bauer, Who Knew?
Before Klee, before Kandinsky, there was Rudolf Bauer, whose story is told here. Two-cushion bank shop tip from Sarah Hoyt (at Instapundit), who put me hip to Killer Nashvile. Read more
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Uh-oh. More Art that actually looks like something.
David Clemens interviews and reviews post-modern, neo-classic artist David Ligare in “Art that Thinks and the Gravity of Our Own Time.” I believe that much if not most of [modern and contemporary art] is now academic and because all things shocking and transgressional have become clichés, I believe that going `in’ is the answer. By Read more
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More Revolution
A few years ago, I was chatting with a professor from our Art Department. He startled (poor, ignorant, unsophisticated) me saying “Art is not about beauty anymore; that’s not what we study.” My unspoken response was (and is) “If not you, then who?” Enter Jacob Collins: “My general feeling in terms of art making is Read more
The Random Texan 